The Hearts of Twilight
by Rayne Falcon-Punches Hanson
Summary: Kairi has been stolen. By what exactly? Heartless vampires. Join us all as Sora and Riku fight to free her from the clutches of the vampires with a little help from everyone's favourite vampires. FemRiku. Soriku friendship. On Hiatus.
1. Prologue: Stolen

The Hearts of Twilight

**Summary:** Kairi has been stolen. By what exactly? Heartless vampires. Join us all as Sora and Riku fight to free her from the clutches of the vampires with a little help from everyone's favourite vampires. FemRiku.

Prologue: Stolen

Kairi opened her eyes and blinked groggily. She looked around her room, and her grogginess disappeared when she saw something standing at the end of her bed. She wildly reached over for the lamp on her bedside table. She flicked it on, and saw a man standing at the edge of her bed, staring at her with the yellow/gold eyes that signified he was a heartless. She opened her mouth to scream, and scream she did.

The man jumped at her and covered her mouth mid-scream. She thrashed under him and bit his hand. He didn't even wince at it. The man/heartless thing used its free hand to choke her until she passed out. She fell limp underneath him.

The thing grinned, showing off sharp K-9s. It made its way to the window, Kairi in its arms. It jumped out and ran away, laughing like a maniac.


	2. Ch 1: A Nightmare and a Rude Awakening

The Hearts of Twilight

**Summary:** Kairi has been stolen. By what exactly? Heartless vampires. Join us all as Sora and Riku fight to free her from the clutches of the vampires with a little help from everyone's favourite vampires. FemRiku.

* * *

**A/N: Dedicated to my friend, Kairi. She gave me the idea, and even the name, because she wanted to see me write a crossover. Love you, man! No Homo!**

Chapter 1: A Nightmare and a Rude Awakening

_Running, running. That's all I'm doing, running. What am I running from? That's what I'd like to know...but every time I look back, all I see is blackness. Maybe it's a metaphor for something? Like Nyctophobia... Or something really damn fast!_

_I jumped out of the way to dodge an attack from the person that suddenly appeared. I noticed that it was a man. He had yellow/gold eyes, and he wore all black._

_A laugh echoed from his mouth—_

And I woke up, biting down hard on my wrist to keep the scream clawing at my throat from escaping. I released my wrist, cringing slightly when I noticed the blood slowly pouring out of two small puncture wounds. I didn't do anything with it for the moment, simply giving myself a second to calm down from the nightmare.

_Memorandum: Bite a rag, ignoramus. _I looked out the window for a moment. _Not even sunrise yet._ I sighed. _Well, might as well get up now. I'm probably not going to be able to sleep anyway. Not after that dream._

I stood and got dressed in a loose tee-shirt and some worn out jeans, not bothering with my traditional outfit for the moment. I would change into it later, like always. It was just easier to wear it instead of taking an hour and a half to find a different but still halfway decent outfit.

I got on my computer, which my mom finally broke down and got me, and went to YouTube. My favourite song pounded from the speakers as I worked on some homework that I still needed to get done. Yeah, I'm the cool kid who gets straight A's, and I put off all my homework until I absolutely need it done. I tend to have to rush through and guess on the questions for most of it, actually, but this was an essay for Lit., so I had to take some time to write it.

After what seemed like an hour—it was literally only twenty minutes—, I got my essay done. I looked at the clock, sighed, and moved on to my other assignments. I finished them in short order as well, and then got up to go downstairs.

It was still too early for almost anyone else on the island to be awake, but I was an early riser, just like most of the rest of my family—although, the only other members in my family that are currently living are my grandfather, my grandmother, my mother, and my older brother. I guess I get it from the women in the family, because neither of the men are early risers. They tend to wait until the sun is up and halfway into the sky before they wake up at all, and it takes them another two hours to get out of bed, while the women on the other hand...Well, they're usually up at somewhere around six and in the kitchen eating breakfast.

This still rang true as I got to the kitchen, and both my mother and grandmother were eating their breakfast, and a plate was waiting for me as well. Both women looked up at my arrival, smiling.

"Good morning, Riku, dear."My grandmother said, her smile more of a knowing smirk, as always.

"Good morning, Grandmother."I said, bowing my head to her.

"How was your sleep? I heard a lot of rustling."My mother asked.

"I had a nightmare. The first one in a few years."I said, shrugging, "Other than that, it was a great sleep."

"Are you sure you weren't doing something else?"My grandmother asked, wiggling her eyebrows suggestively.

"I'm sure, Grandmother."I said, rolling my eyes.

I sat down and began to eat in silence. As soon as I stood up to put my plate in the sink, there was an insistent knock on the front door. I continued to do what I had intended, and then made my way to the entryway, slightly confused. It was only seven, no one was up this early except for Sora, Kairi, my relatives, and me.

I opened the door to see a very panicked and bed-headed Sora panting with his hands on his knees, kneeled over slightly.

"Sora? What are you doing here at this time in the morning?"I asked, raising an eyebrow.

He held up one finger to me, before straightening and looking me right in the eye. "Kairi...isn't...anywhere...on the mainland... She's gone."

"Did you check the islands?"I asked sceptically.

"Yeah...all of them."He said, finally managing to catch his breath.

"Well, then...that's strange... How could she have gotten off the islands? She doesn't know how to pilot a Gummi Ship, and she couldn't have opened a Dark Corridor... Odd."I looked at the sky for a second before stepping back. "Well, come in. I don't think you'll be able to figure it out if you're out there freezing your ass off."

He nodded in thanks and walked into the entryway before following me to the living room. He fell heavily onto the couch, making me suspect he was more worried about Kairi than he was telling me. "I haven't seen her since last night, when I walked her home."He said, looking at me from where he had collapsed.

I nodded. "So, she's not at home?"I asked.

He shook his head. "Her mom said something about hearing Kairi scream and then a man laughing, but by the time she got up there, Kairi was gone..."

I crossed one of my arms over my chest, propping the elbow of my other one on the wrist of the first and resting my chin on the fist of the other one. "Well, that's weird... I heard a man laughing last night. It was around ten, so I just figured it was my brother... But, what time did Kairi's mom hear the laughing?"

"She...she said it was around ten or eleven, about an hour after Kairi finally decided to hit the hay."

"..."I looked him right in the eye, "Then I might have heard the kidnapper. But, that won't help us, because we don't know where he's taken her, or who he—or she—is." Sora nodded in agreement. "I might be able to find her, but it's not very likely." He looked crestfallen. "Oh, don't worry. If I have to, I'll resort to using Darkness again. I know how much she means to you. Even if she wasn't your girlfriend and meant little to nothing to you, I'd still try to find her."

"You'd really use the Darkness to find her, if you had to?"He asked, looking surprised.

"Oh, don't look so surprised."I snapped. "She's a good friend. And she didn't freak out as much as you did when she found out I was a girl."I said, my eye twitching.

"Hey! I wasn't expecting it! You acted like such a boy for all that time, and you still do! It's really hard to believe!"He exclaimed indignantly. "Besides, she acted like she already knew!"

"Knowing, Kairi..."I said, "She probably did. I mean, she's probably the most perceptive out of the three of us, and—"I was cut off by my phone ringing.

"_1, 2, 3, not only you and me, one eighty degrees, and I'm caught in between. Countin' 1, 2, 3—_"

I answered it in a rush. That was my ringtone for Kairi. "Hello?"

"Riku! You have to help me! I've been kidnapped by—by something. He's...it's not human. He looks like a cross between a Heartless and a person, but... it's really fast, faster than any human I've ever met..."

"I know you were kidnapped. I was just trying to figure out where whoever it was that did it might have taken you, Kairi. Do you have any idea where he might have taken you?"

"No...I heard something about an old mansion, but other than that, I don't know."

"Old mansion? I only know of one of those... The one in Twilight Town. Sora and I will be there as soon as humanly possible."

"OK, but hurry! I heard them say they're gonna move me soon."

"Okay, calm down a little bit. I'm going to try and open a Dark Corridor to you. I won't be able to go through it, but I will be able to see where you are, just in case you're not in Twilight Town."

"...Kay."

She sounded a lot more calm, so I went ahead and tried it. I got some results as a large portal appeared in front of me, and I made it see through, so I could see exactly where Kairi was. I had guessed right. She was in Twilight Town.

"...M'kay. I found you. We'll be there as fast as a Gummi Ship can take us."

"Please hurry."

"I—we—will."

Sora looked at me in worry.

"I know where Kairi is."I said, smirking.

"Where?!"He asked.

"Twilight Town, now let's get going. I suggest you go back to your house, grab anything you might need, and meet me on the island in ten minutes."

He nodded. He was off the couch and out the door in seconds. I didn't feel the need to worry too much that he'd be late in getting to the island, if he was able to move that fast with how winded he was. I moved a little bit slower than that, not having to run to get to my room.

I grabbed my computer—it's a laptop, in case you were wondering—, the charger for it, my phone charger, and a bag of toiletries that I kept handy for this sort of thing. I changed into my traditional jeans, zip up shirt, vest and arm band, not stopping to grab my extra key chains I had for my keyblade. I only ever used Way to Dawn now.

I was in and out of my room, down the stairs, and in the kitchen within the span of about thirty seconds. I was still tugging my vest on when I entered the kitchen. Both my mother and grandmother looked up at me, raising their eyebrows.

"It would seem that Kairi has been kidnapped. I did a quick check to see where she was, and Sora and I are going to get her back. I should be back later  
today. I'll call you if I have to stay away any longer than that."I said, giving my mother a hug and then doing the same to my grandmother.

"Be careful!"They called in unison as I ran out of the kitchen and down the hallway to the front door.

I pulled on my shoes and bolted out the door, not stopping to make sure it was properly closed. I ran down the sidewalk, calmly flipping off a kid from school who called, "Run, Forest, run!" after me when I passed his yard.

"Shut the hell up!"I snapped, my voice gruff from my running, perfectly keeping up my façade of being a boy.

It's not that I don't like being a girl, it's just that I don't like people knowing I'm a girl. That, and I never really knew the difference when I was younger and I just told everyone I was a boy. Now I barely kept people from finding out, what with my...appendages and all. I'm just glad I only had to have two years of P.E. I don't think I could've handled two more.

Either way, I got to the island with time to spare, and I was waiting for Sora. I was beginning to get impatient within a few seconds though, something that usually doesn't happen.

_He'd better hurry his ass up. If we don't get moving they could move Kairi before we get there. _I checked my watch. _Two minutes left in my time limit. If he's not here when those two minutes are up, I'm leaving without him, whether I can pilot a Gummi Ship or not._

I really didn't need to worry, as he came about a minute later, but paranoia runs in the family. It's part of the reason why Maleficent was able to trick me so easily. I was already paranoid that Sora had replaced me with someone other than Kairi, and she just added fuel to that fire.

Back on track now, that's not important anymore. He followed me to the place where we had hidden the Gummi Ship that the King had given us, and he took the pilot's seat, with me at the controls for the guns and such. He was quiet the whole way there, and even after we had gotten into the ship. He finally spoke once we started to leave the world.

"Do you think Kairi's been moved yet?"He asked.

"No, not yet, hopefully. Now stop looking so down and pilot this thing."

Real nice of me, wasn't it? Rhetorical question, before you decide to answer that. But, despite how rude I was, he smiled.

"Charming, as usual, aren't we, Riku?"He asked.

I hummed in response and nodded, getting to work on shooting a small handful of Heartless ships as they got closer. If there's one thing I like about Gummi Ships, it's the fact that I get to shoot things when I'm in one. Other than that, I can't stand the things. I get motion sickness when I ride in them most of the time. Too many flips and turns that Sora has to make when he's flying it.

And no, I'm not going to go off on a rant on why I didn't get motion sickness on the flyer thing that I had to pilot when we were fighting Xemnas. It would take too much time, and it's not a story that you really need to hear at this point. Not important to the current plot. I might tell you later, when I get the time. In fact, I might just tell you everything that happened in that journey that I took after I opened the door on Destiny Islands.

We reached Twilight Town in basically no time at all, considering the fact that Sora was flying like a madman and I was destroying Heartless ships before they even got within three meters of us. We disembarked and immediately, Sora took off toward the Mansion. I followed him, moving just a bit slower so as not to make my motion sickness that had started to act up near the end of our flight any worse.

After it faded, I took off after him at double my previous speed, catching up with him halfway through the woods in front of the Mansion. He was already looking scared when we finally reached the Mansion. I tried to stay as calm as was possible at the current moment, and tried to calm him as well.

A few moments later, I needed to comfort him instead of calm him. Kairi wasn't in the Mansion. She was gone, and there were two words scrawled on the wall of one of the rooms within it. They were written in what looked like blood.

_Deep Jungle_

Sora broke down. He was terrified. He knew before we got there that she would be gone. I considered giving him a moment to calm down and take it in, but instead of being the understanding, helpful friend, I just picked him up by the back of his shirt and threw him out of the room so I could see if it really was blood that the message was written in.

It was. I could smell the rust and salt when I got closer to it. That was all the assurance I needed, and so I left the room, grabbed Sora—literally—and left the Mansion altogether. I dragged him by the back of his jacket to the Gummi Ship, threw him in the single room within it, and decided to take a crash course in Gummi Ship piloting.

It didn't take long for me to get used to it, and soon, we were on our way to Deep Jungle. Sora finally came out of the room, his face finally free of the tears that had been rolling down it earlier. He took a seat beside me at the controls of the guns. He gave me an apologetic and thankful look. I just nodded, getting the message. We then proceeded on to Deep Jungle to find Kairi. Hopefully, this time, we'd find her.

* * *

Next time on The Hearts of Twilight!

"I'm not sure I can trust you."

"I swear, we're different. We wouldn't drink from a human if our lives depended on it."

"How can I be sure about your sincerity?"

Riku: This is my story, and I don't intend to let anyone else take it over. Quite frankly, they'd tell it wrong. The murky air is all silence, until a surprised and girlish scream shatters it. Amused laughter echoes through the trees as an indignant voice complains. Chapter 2: A Vampire and a Practical Joke.


	3. Ch 2: A Vampire and a Practical Joke

The Hearts of Twilight

**Summary:** Kairi has been stolen. By what exactly? Heartless vampires. Join us all as Sora and Riku fight to free her from the clutches of the vampires with a little help from everyone's favourite vampires. FemRiku.

* * *

**A/N: In which I, Riku, meet some of the Cullens. Dedicated to my friend, Kairi. She gave me the idea, and even the name, because she wanted to see me write a crossover. Love you, man! No Homo!**

Chapter 2: A Vampire and a Practical Joke

Silence filled the cabin of the Gummi Ship. We'd been flying for a few hours now, as this new ship didn't have a Warp Gummi, we had to take the long way to Deep Jungle, and it would take a few more hours of steady flying to get there. By then, according to my phone, it would be four in the morning. I decided we should take a quick stop to sleep, and Sora whole-heartedly agreed with me.

I told him to go ahead and sleep in the room of the ship, and, after a few minutes of arguing, he begrudgingly obliged. As soon as he was gone, I sat myself on the couch in the back of the cabin.

_I should probably call my mom now… It's really late…_ I thought.

I picked up my phone and dialled my mom's number, not bothering to just speed dial.

"Dear gods, Riku!"She screeched, having answered after one ring. "What is wrong with you? Could you not have called earlier?!"

"Mom." She continued to rant, though I wasn't really listening. "Mom."I said, much more firmly. She stopped. "I'm fine, and so is Sora. We're just going to be gone for a bit longer than I thought. Maybe a couple more days. I'll call if I have to be gone any longer than that."

"Alright, but make sure you don't lose contact. And try to come home in one piece this time!"

I flinched. Did she really need to bring up what I had been like when I had gotten my Mark of Mastery and Sora hadn't. I had been kind of sympathetic, and didn't brag about it, but, despite having the Mark, I was still kind of depressed. Sora had been absolutely devastated when he hadn't gotten the Mark. And when he was depressed, so was I, due to our deep bond that we'd reformed after Xemnas was defeated.

"Alright mom. I promise I'll come back alright. Or as alright as I can…"I said.

"Young woman, you will come back better than when you left, or else."

I gulped and said goodbye before I hung up. I laid down on the couch, crossing my arms behind my head and staring at the ceiling.

"This is going to be a long night."I muttered before taking one of my arms out from underneath my head.

I turned on my side and crossed that arm over my chest to rest on the edge of the cushion, right next to the back.

I didn't sleep for a while. I thought about what had happened over the past three years. From the raft to the current dilemma. My betrayal against Sora to my redemption. My time in the Darkness to the explosion that should have cleansed me of the Darkness. Everything.

I've done a lot of horrible stuff in my life. I betrayed my best friend because I thought he'd replaced me with Donald and Goofy, while in reality he'd only teamed up with them to find me and Kairi. Honestly though, he is friends with them now, much more than he was back then. I submerged myself in Darkness and hid from aforementioned best friend so he wouldn't know. And then I'd gotten the Mark. Whether that was horrible or not is open for discussion, but I feel like it was. Sora was so depressed, and that's saying something.

Those thoughts kept me up for hours. I don't even remember falling asleep.

_—I jumped out of the way again, summoning Way to Dawn and lashing out. He dodged, moving in front of me, where it had been light. His movement turned the area dark and lit up the area behind me. I lashed out again, catching him on the arm. There was no blood, there wasn't even a scratch._

_In a panic, I cast Dark Firaga at him. It was the first thing that came to mind, but it looked like it worked. It hit him and he screamed in pain. It turned into real fire and thick purple smoke curled up from him. It smelled strange, but I didn't really care._

I awoke with a start, drenched in a cold sweat and staring at the back of the couch. I sat up and looked around, disoriented as to where I was for a second.

The events of the day before came rushing back to me and I had to bite my wrist to keep from screaming yet again. Let me tell you, my canines are freakin' **_sharp_**. I found that out the hard way…Twice.

I looked around again, and felt relieved when I noticed that Sora hadn't gotten up yet. I had tossed off my vest at some point in the night, and as a result was only dressed in my pants and my zip up shirt. I reached over and picked up my vest, confused.

_How the hell did I manage that?_ I asked myself. _As far as I can tell, I didn't move a muscle the entire time I was asleep… I was still looking at the back of the couch when I woke up…_

I thought about it for a while, and then I decided I didn't really care. I pulled my vest on, got up, and walked down the Gummi Ship's hallway to the kitchen. I grabbed an apple from the basket on the counter, taking a large bite out of it and looking around. The ship really wasn't much to sneeze at, altogether. It was small on the outside, and not quite as small as it seemed on the inside, but it was still pretty damn small, all things considered. I've seen bigger rafts. Bur despite its size—or perhaps _because_ of that—it was quite a quick little ship.

I'd never seen anything other than the cockpit of the stupid thing though, considering I was usually too busy clinging on to the couch and trying not to puke everywhere. Despite that, nothing outside the cockpit of that tiny little motion sickness trap surprised me. Nothing. I just don't get surprised by stuff that isn't supernatural.

Heartless and stuff like that, I mean, but they hardly surprise me anymore either. I've just seen too many of them. But back to the point.

I heard sounds from down the hallway, and knew that Sora must have finally gotten up. I checked my phone for the time. It was 4:30. Damn, we must really not sleep much when we're away from home... It was somewhere around 11 when we went to bed, and was probably 1 by the time either of us ended up actually falling asleep.

"Hey, Riku."He greeted me when he spotted me by the counter.

"Morning."I replied.

I finished my apple while Sora started on his own. It wasn't much of a breakfast, but it was good enough for us.

"Do you think we'll find her today?"Sora asked, not looking up from his apple.

"I don't know, Sora. Maybe we will, maybe we won't."I replied, giving him a stern look. "What I do know is, we'll definitely find her eventually. Should push come to shove, I'll even use my Darkness. I already told you that."

My tone indicated that the conversation was over, and Sora understood that. He didn't say another word on the matter, but he did ask me another question.

"Just out of curiosity, "He began, looking sheepish, "did you, uh, ever—and don't take this the wrong way—have a crush on me when we were kids?"

I raised an eyebrow at him.

"Just out of curiosity, Riku!"He said, seeing the quirked eyebrow.

"Well, to be honest, I don't think I ever did. Don't get me wrong, you're cute and all, but you're just not my type."

He nodded, smiling. "Okay." Then something sunk in, "You think I'm cute, Riku?"

I felt my cheeks heat up when I realised that I'd said that. I ducked my head and mentally scolded myself for saying something so stupid. "Yeah, but I didn't mean it in the way you might think I did. You're more kid cute than teenage boy cute."

"Kid cute?"He asked, tilting his head to the side, "What do you mean?"

"I mean you're cute like a 5 year old would be considered cute."I explained.

He looked indignant, "5 year old cute? But I'm 15!"He objected.

I had to resist the urge to tell him that every time he pouted, it made him seem like he wasn't 15, I really just didn't think that he'd understand. When I said nothing, he spoke up again.

"Well, while we're on the subject of how cute we think each other are, "He said, ignoring the questioning look I gave him, "And don't take this the wrong way, I only have eyes for Kairi, after all, but you're cute too."

I felt my face go red. "Uh..."

"But you're not girl cute, you're more 16 year old guy cute."

My eyebrow shot up quickly. "Guy cute? I like to think I look at least kind of feminine..."

"You are, but the way you act, the amount of muscles on your arms, and your slight lack of..."He motioned to his chest and cupped his hands, "...you know, make you seem like a guy."

My face, if at all possible, grew even redder. "You've paid that much attention?!"

"Not intentionally! I just—I noticed after we finally got back to the island."He said, red in the face as well.

"Why did you notice then?"I prodded, I wanted an answer—mostly because he had noticed that I had small boobs!

"I was watching you more closely after we got back, for two reasons. The first being that I was afraid you'd disappear again. The second is because Kairi asked me to, for the same reason I was in the already watching you in the first place. She was afraid that if you went unwatched for one second you'd disappear. She felt like she'd wake up one day and find out that you were gone again."

I nodded, then asked, "Did you seriously say all that in one breath?"

Sora nodded, taking a deep breath.

"You are so...you're such an idiot sometimes."I laughed, shaking my head.

He just smiled. "Yeah, but I'm your best friend anyway."

"Yeah. Even though I'm a paranoid little brat and I disregarded that for a year or two there..."I replied, feeling sheepish.

"You're really still beating yourself up about that?"Sora asked, raising an eyebrow. When I didn't respond he continued, "Riku, if that bothered me at all, I'd have punched you and gotten it over with already. I don't mind, and I can kind of understand why you did it."

I smiled slightly at him. "Thanks. Now let's go find Kairi."

He nodded. "Okay."

With a smile on his face, he took the wheel and I once again took the gun controls. While there were less Heartless at this point(obviously, we stopped to rest, didn't we?), I still took out as many as I could, grinning from ear to ear as I did. Sora just smiled at my enthusiasm.

It's usually the other way around, but when it comes to me, guns, and swarms of Heartless...Well, let's just say I have an itchy trigger finger.

**_`~+^#^+~`_**

We flew in relative silence for a few hours until we saw Deep Jungle. Well, Sora saw it, I was still scratching my itchy trigger finger and settling my growing apprehension by blasting ever Heartless ship I saw.

"Huh, looks bigger than it did last time. Once we land, navigation might be kind of difficult, no matter how many times I've run around in this jungle."Sora said.

"Oh, we're here?"I asked, looking over at him in surprise.

He looked over at me and laughed. "Dude, you talk about me looking 5 year old cute, and then you pull a face like that!"

"What?" I was confused as to what he meant.

"You've got this look on your face like I know I get when I almost run into somebody that I didn't see. You know, that face when I yell, 'There was a person there!'."

"Oh. So I looked stupid for a second or two there?"I asked, quirking an eyebrow.

He punched me in the shoulder, laughing. "Shut up."

"Hey, I thought you didn't hit girls."I said, giving him the 'mmmhmm' look.

"You don't count. I usually don't tend to figure my cross-dressing best friend into the girl category, due to _years_ of believing otherwise."He answered, obviously accusing me of keeping it from him for so long, as usual.

"I'm still not sorry that I kept it from you. I mean it's not like you can really blame me for not knowing until later on. I couldn't really tell you something I didn't know."

He hummed in response, lowering us toward the jungle. We landed soon and got out with some essentials we thought we might need. Sora soon started up his usual chatter, and I was content to listen and not respond. It wasn't like I'd really be able to say much with what little breaks he took to breathe.

I checked my phone regularly, managing to squeeze a sentence into the conversation about how much longer we could travel, and then slipped back out of it again. When my phone read 6:45, I decided to tell him that we needed to stop for the night, since it was already relatively dark within the trees.

"We should probably just go for a little longer, maybe find a clearing before we stop."I suggested.

"Okay. I'm pretty sure there's one about a half mile from here, if I remember this place correctly."He said, seemingly racking his memory.

"M'kay."

We kept going for that half mile and found a rather large clearing. I nodded in approval at the amount of cover the trees above provided and the room there was for us to set up camp. I dropped the backpack he'd basically had to wrestle me into carrying and began unpacking the stuff he'd put into it. And I thought we girls over packed.

There was a lot of stuff that he probably just wanted to have, and not that he actually needed to trek through the jungle. I rolled my eyes at his childishness about packing. He'd insisted on the extra backpacks, just in case. Hopefully, we wouldn't be here long enough to use it. He'd argued and argued with me though, so I let him pack the stuff.

Then of course, since he was carrying the other bag, I had to carry the extra one, which I had argued about before. He was adamant that we take that extra bag though. I was pretty sure I knew why though—he wanted to make sure we had enough for Kairi if we found her, which he was obviously hoping we would.

She'd barely been gone for two days, and yet he already missed her like she'd been gone for two years. I'll never understand love, it just seems too complicated to me. And this is coming from the girl who has straight A's in every class, including AP Calculus.

Anyway, we made camp for the night, had some of our fruit for dinner, and Sora passed out in his sleeping bag. He was so sure that there was nothing in this woods that would hurt/maim/fatally injure him, that I was tempted to agree. But I'm suspicious and paranoid, so I decided to keep watch for a few hours. A short couple hours of sleep would be enough for me.

I guess I fell asleep after a short time though, because the next thing I knew, the sun was beginning to light the clearing, and I was still sitting up on a log by the fire. Said fire was little more than smouldering coals at this point, but it was still plenty warm, and the clearing plenty cold to allow that.

Sora was still asleep, but I had a watching feeling. You know, that feeling that makes the skin in between your shoulder blades itch and the hair on the back of your neck stand on end. It was so apparent to me that I could swear whoever it was was just a few feet away, but when I spun around to see what it was, there was nothing there. I scanned the trees for a few seconds, still extremely suspicious.

When I turned back around, Sora was standing right in front of me. I didn't mean to, but I screamed at the top of my lungs. Sora started laughing, despite the fact that I obviously didn't find it amusing to give your best friend a heart attack right after they first wake up.

"Sora, that was completely uncalled for, and not to mention rude!" My voice didn't hold the sharpness I meant it to, it was simply indignant.

"It was also hilarious!"Sora answered, still laughing.

"I'm going to ring your neck one of these days. No matter what anyone would say, I'd just freakin' strangle you."I muttered, my voice less indignant and sharper now.

The watching feeling returned with vengeance, from the exact same place, for that matter. I wanted to turn around again, but Sora obviously didn't see anything, so I wasn't going to give into my paranoia. I gathered my pride and stood up, surprising Sora.

"Let's pack up. We shouldn't waste daylight."I said flatly.

"Okay."

We did so, and I let him take the lead, once again contenting myself to listen to his mindless babble as we walked. Eventually, though, I stopped even doing that. I just walked and drowned myself in my thoughts. Only once I had begun doing this did a realization hit me—I hadn't had a nightmare that night.

I knew I should be happy about that, but something about it bothered me. It was like the nightmare had been kept at bay, like it had been blocked. I knew I should've had one, considering the fact that both times I had fallen asleep, in the two days before, I had one.

It really began to bug me after thinking about it for a second. Why hadn't I had one? Why did it bother me so much that I hadn't? Questions buzzed around in my brain, forcing me to pay less attention to the boy in front of me, who was quickly trudging along, chattering like a kid at Christmas. I barely paid enough attention to tell which direction he was going.

I didn't see the tree root until after I had tripped over it. My hands shot out in front of me, desperate to grab something so I wouldn't faceplant. I didn't make a sound the entire time, and Sora just kept going. I scraped up my palms and knees pretty bad, but I was on my feet and caught up with Sora again within seconds. He hadn't noticed, thank the gods.

I paid more attention to the ground and my obstacles after that, my questions from before completely forgotten for the moment. And due to that, I didn't notice the sinister feeling that the air began to take. Well, I did notice it, but it didn't really register until it was too late.

Sora screamed.

My head shot up just in time to see him taken into the arms of something that looked suspiciously like the creature in my nightmares. I started to run forward, hoping I'd be able to save Sora before it managed to take him any farther, but it blurred and disappeared out of my sight before I could get close enough.

I was alone.

The fear gripped me before I could fully grasp what had just happened. My heart rate picked up, and my breath began to come in short gasps. I was going into a full blown panic, and fading fast, but I managed to grab what bit of rationality I could find in my panicking mind. I calmed myself and stuffed the fear and panic into the darkest corner of my mind, so I could forget it.

My best poker face formed, and soon it was almost possible for me to believe I was a 15 year old working for Maleficent again. Despite how much I hated myself for it, I used my experiences from that time to calm myself. Even make myself emotionless at times.

I felt someone approaching me, and slowly turned to look, making it obvious that was what I was doing. What I saw honestly surprised me, but my emotionless façade was unbroken. I simply stared at the man and woman that had appeared.

"Hello."The woman said quietly. Her voice sounded like chimes. I made a mental note of that.

"Hello."I returned.

She seemed cautious of me at first, then surprised at my uncaringness that she was positively not human.

"How are you?"She asked politely.

"Well...My best friend just got kidnapped and I'm flipping out, but other than that I'm fine."I replied, shrugging.

"Freaking out? You could've fooled me."The man said, looking perplexed.

The woman looked over. "What's wrong Edward?"She asked him in an undertone, apparently suspecting I couldn't hear her.

"I can't read his thoughts. It's strange. He obviously doesn't have a shield like you do, but..."He trailed off.

"Maybe he's just naturally adept at keeping people out of his head. Even vampires who have the abilities you do."

I quirked an eyebrow, my poker face only breaking slightly in response. "Vampires?"I asked, not sceptically, but with obvious intrigue in my voice.

They both grew still. They looked over at me in surprise before nodding their heads in unison. I just nodded back. "Okay."

"That doesn't scare you?"The woman asked, confused.

"No. Nothing really does anymore, I've just seen too much in the past two or so years. Like my best friend impaling himself and then coming back to life."

They both raised their eyebrows at the same time, obviously wondering about that, but then they seemed to think better of it, and they didn't ask what I was talking about.

"So you're not scared at all?"The man, Edward, asked.

"No. But I'm not sure I can trust you."I said, referring to the fact that they were vampires. They both understood.

"I swear, we're different. We wouldn't drink from a human if our lives depended on it."He said, putting his hands up in defense.

"How can I be sure about your sincerity?"I asked, raising an eyebrow.

"You can't."The woman said, almost regretfully, "You'll just have to trust us."

I regarded her for a second before nodding. "Fair enough."

"So, that friend of yours..."She began, watching me carefully.

I just looked her in the eyes, her honey colored eyes, and waited.

"How much did he mean to you?"She asked.

I wanted to yell, 'What the hell kind of question is that?! He's my best friend, you dumbass!', but I didn't for the sake of my own well-being. "He's my best friend, what do you think?"I asked with a dead-pan. "Why do you ask?"

"Because he might die soon if you don't get looking for him. That was a Heartless Vampire, a hybrid. They feed both on the blood and Hearts of their victims."She answered.

That was all the prompting I needed to turn around and start walking in the direction I last saw this, 'Heartless Vampire' moving in. I could tell Edward and the woman were following me, so I asked, "What're your names, anyway?"

"I'm Bella."the woman replied.

"And I'm Edward. Her husband."the man replied. He sounded way protective.

"Don't worry, mate, I'm not gonna steal your wife. I don't tend to go for someone who's not of the same species as me."

"You'd better not, or he'd probably kill you. Slowly."Bella said.

I chuckled. "Oh, I don't doubt it." I thought for a second before saying, "And there's something you should know, before we get any farther into this little quest—I'm a girl, and my name is Riku."

I didn't need to see their faces to notice how shocked they were.

* * *

Next time on The Hearts of Twilight!

"Oh, is that all?"

"You're not surprised?"

"Why would I be, Bella?"

Riku: Well, nothing is better than a good relaxing day in the company of two vampires. The jungle is silent and nothing seems to move. A plume of foul smelling purple smoke rises off the ground. Chapter 3: A Jungle Cat and a Burning Corpse.


End file.
